Spicy Curacha With Alavar Sauce

Today, I was thinking about Christmas and the first thing that came across my mind is  food. And then my imaginings led me to think  about adding more posts in the "FOOD" category of this blog and so I am posting this recipe. Hope you enjoy.

My sister made this dish a year ago when she got back from her trip from Zamboanga City with an ice chest full of orange, cockroach-looking Curacha. Curacha is a deep-sea crab that is fared as a delicacy in Zamboanga and nearby provinces. Although I have seen this kind of crab occasionally in the local markets here in Davao, I never really bothered buying them for reasons that it is expensive and, well,  weird-looking.

But when my sister arrived bearing a few crustaceans inside the ice chest, we have to try it out. Curious about how it is cooked, I watched my sister prepare the ingredients mechanically in the kitchen. Here are the ingredients as follows:

Ingredients

1 kilo Curacha (about two big crabs)

A pinch of salt and pepper to taste

30 pcs. Siling labuyo (red hot chilli), crushed

1 sprig lemon grass

1 packet Alavar Sauce

Boil the Curacha in water for 10 minutes with lemon grass to remove some of the smell. Remove excess water and pour over the Alavar Sauce and the crushed siling labuyo. Let the sauce simmer and reduce for several minutes until the sauce turns into a thick caramelized appearance. Serve with rice.

Alavar Sauce is locally made in Zamboanga City and it costs 250PhP for one packet which contains 250mL of the sauce. I have yet to decipher how it is made but I warrant that it ss made from coconut mixed with atsuete powder. In fact, it tasted like the sauce from guinataan  or Rendang (without the yellowish color).

The process of making this spicy Curacha is very easy. The hard part is eating it. I am really unfamiliar with this kind of crab so I am poking everywhere to get the meat. Although not as fleshy as the blue spinner crab (alimasag), I find the taste and smell delectable and so have the flies around me as well.